Self-Help

With all the self-help books out there, I've never seen one for self-help check-out lines. I may have stumbled upon a whole new market here. Once I have the procedure down, I'm considering an instruction manual accompanied with a bonus tutorial DVD. I don't understand how the packing area knows what I put in the bag and what I've failed to put in the bag.

While buying one dozen light bulbs neatly placed in a cardboard holder, the scanner would not allow me to scan the same one twelve times without placing one in the "baggage holding area" each time. This meant removing each one from the convenient cardboard holder and placing them loosely in a bag in the "baggage holding area." Sounds like an important place, doesn't it...like maybe the "staging area" prior to a Broadway play, or the "holding cell" prior to prison sentencing, wasn't sure just yet if it was a good place or a very bad place. Then of course, when finished, I place the convenient cardboard holder in the "baggage holding area" so that I can use it for convenient storage when I get home, but lo and behold this very important "baggage holding area" will not allow it in the "baggage holding area" and the nice lady in the computer announces that a foreign object has been placed in the "baggage holding area." This confirms that the "baggage holding area" is not a very good place, but a very bad place and I don't want to go there ever again unless I know what I'm doing. Finally, the real nice lady (not the lady in the computer) who has the very important job of manning the self-help lines comes to my aid and removes the cardboard holder and places it in my shopping cart. Upon arrival at home, I lift the bag now filled with one dozen loose light bulbs and lo and behold the overfilled plastic bag tears down the side and all twelve light bulbs scatter to the ground, and luckily only one explodes. Well either way, one or all, I'm going back to exchange for another. Only this time, I will go to the customer service desk and the nice real lady behind the counter will allow me to get a new light bulb.

If only there was an instructional manual with a tutorial DVD, I would have saved myself a lot of time and energy (not to mention gas) before entering the self-help check-out line. So, what do you think, is there a market for this or what???

Just A Little Tidbit

I've noticed that when God puts something on my heart, He provides for me to follow through with what that is. Sometimes I forget what this life story is about and see it as 'Him providing for me' and then other times, and thankfully so, I will be reminded that He is actually providing for His will to be done. Praise Him for that, His will is perfect anyway! Isn't that what we want to know and accomplish...His will, isn't that how we get to come into complete agreement with Him??? God's story is just so amazing and wonderful, words don't tell enough, it has to be lived...'His Way,' and if we take notice a little more often, 'His Way' is always lovingly for another, which also includes us.

Trials, Tribulations, and Triumphs

I've decided to add a word to a phrase that's been around for as long as I can remember, so I'm sure it was around way before that. The phrase is 'trials and tribulations,' and the word I've added to it is 'triumphs.' When I think about the many trials and/or tribulations that I've experienced, there has always been triumphs along with them...or just prior to...or even after. Now, that's something to be excited about because if you noticed I did say "the many trials and/or tribulations that I've experienced," so that tells you I have experienced many triumphs also, and then again what about all the triumphs that come without the trials and tribulations. So, what does that say? It says that I have experienced more triumphs than trials and tribulations. WOW, PRAISE GOD!

I can't help but wonder if that's so for everyone. I'm sure some will say definitely not, but I also have to wonder it that's true...or is it that they just don't notice the triumphs? There are times that I don't. When I look back to all the times I prayed not to be going through a specific trial, I can now see that if I wasn't there, then I wouldn't be here 'where I am now.' Those are the prayers I'm glad now that weren't answered. Somehow we seem to make situations to be all about us, and we want them to work out a certain way for us. When they don't, I can see how it's a good thing they weren't because it isn't only about us. So then I guess those prayers actually were answered, just not the way I wanted or expected, instead it was just that someone else knew what was best for me. So why don't we trust Him enough? I say enough because we say we do, then realize that we didn't when we should have. Sound confusing??? Well in a way it is, and in a way it's very simple.

We already know the end of the story, so what's our problem? My guess? We are our problem. And so, we continue to learn and grow and try our very best to make life about living for and with others instead of just ourselves.

Some trials and tribulations I am experiencing right now are actually about one very small person, my eleven year old son, and also the lives of my three older grown sons. I am learning how to be a single mom. After twenty-five years of learning what a marriage is supposed to be, I'm now learning how to be divorced...that's me, always learning something new. Where's the triumph in that you might ask. It's that I've learned to lean on my most trusted Father, the Lord, and seek His advice in everything I do, when I remember to. When I don't remember to, that's when the triumph is in not getting what I want.

This may sound pretty impressive to some, but there is something I'm ashamed of...that most times even while basking in the triumphs, it's still difficult for me to be thankful for the trials and tribulations. What a selfish breed we are, us humans.